


Don't mind me (I'm awfully sorry)

by Give_Me_A_Karking_KitKat



Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: Featuring Lavinia Temple's abandonment issues, Gen, Hypothermia, I'm so sorry, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, Mild Hurt/Comfort, mmu winter celebrations, not beta read we die like Verity, this is literally overdue three months
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29163951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Give_Me_A_Karking_KitKat/pseuds/Give_Me_A_Karking_KitKat
Summary: In which Lavinia nearly dies from hypothermiaFrom the prompts the great outdoors, snowed in, footprints in the snow, warm and cold and lights.
Relationships: Katherine "Kitty" Freebody & Lavinia Temple, Katherine "Kitty" Freebody & Rebecca "Beanie" Martineau, Katherine "Kitty" Freebody & Rebecca "Beanie" Martineau & Lavinia Temple, Rebecca "Beanie" Martineau & Lavinia Temple
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Don't mind me (I'm awfully sorry)

Lavinia is **freezing.**

The snow hasn't let up yet, and she's far too cold to sleep. She's exhausted, but she's too cold to sleep (and somewhere, she remembers that going to sleep in the cold when you're also going to wake up in the cold is a terrible idea. It seems like something Hazel had told her, and Hazel is usually right about most things). So she can't sleep. She also can't leave, because it turns out that during her nap in the day, the snow had come down hard enough that she ended up snowed in.

In a Godforsaken _shed._

It's definitely sometime well into the night now, even though she can't check because, to emphasize, she's stuck in a stupid _shed,_ and it doesn't have any windows. Regardless, it's definitely night because otherwise it wouldn't be so bloody _cold._

She shivers violently, and huddles further into the corner, like that might do anything about the extreme chill. She's starting to regret not just knocking on the Freebody's door, but the thought of doing so and being turned away made her stomach twist. So, reasonably (at least, it has seemed reasonable at the time), she'd decided to become an issue they couldn't just turn away.

Also, like, any maid answering the door definitely would have sent her away.

Well, she thinks they would have. A smart maid would have sent her away, and Lavinia isn't sure that Kitty's parents would appreciate her unexpected presence. _Her_ parents don't appreciate her presence even when they've specifically asked her to be there, constantly telling her to smile and look less glum. So Kitty's parent's definitely wouldn't have. Why bother with a kid that isn't even yours, especially when that kid's _parents_ don't bother with them (she pointedly ignores the part of her brain pointing out that they bother with Beanie. Beanie's different. She's actually nice, for one).

Anyway, It doesn't matter now. She didn't knock on the stupid front door and now she's stuck in the stupid shed and it's absolutely freezing, and her stupid coat isn't doing very much to stop the biting chill. At this rate, getting sick is going to be the _least_ of her worries. She can see her breath misting in the air, and her fingers are starting to go numb, and she can't feel her stupid nose, and it's just absolutely fridged. 

The Kitty in her mind tells her this was perhaps the dumbest decision she's made all year, even including following her friends into the school's tunnels, and the Hazel and Daisy chime in with the stupid facts about hypothermia that they'd talked about before break, Hazel in her concerned, soft, tone, and Daisy in her excited one (because talking about death, morbidly, never seemed to fail to cheer her up. Daisy was strange like that). Lavinia sort of wishes they hadn't had that conversation, because now she knows that growing numb to the cold is not, in fact, a good sign.

Whatever. Maybe getting hypothermia to avoid your parents and/or getting sent away from your friend's house would be considered "not worth it" to other people, but Lavinia is not other people. So. It's fine.

Most she can do is wait it out now, really.

⁂

A scrabbeling noise against the door wakes Lavinia from the slight doze she'd fallen into, aware her shivering had started to die out but not able to bring herself to do anything about it.

Someone yanks the door open abruptly, letting in a gust of cold air that feels blistering against Lavinia's frozen skin.

"Kitty?" She mumbles, squinting. She's so cold that it's hard to think.

"You _moron_." Kitty hisses, face flushed bright red with exertion. Her gloved hands are coated in snow, and Lavinia sees Beanie peak at her from under the arm holding the door open. She smiles sheepishly in greeting. Kitty looks distinctly murderous.

"Lavinia!" Beanie cries, wriggling past Kitty almost frantically. "How are you feeling? That's a silly question, your lips are blue. Come on, we need to get you inside!" She grasps Lavinia's dirty coat with both hands and helps hoist her up. Lavinia stumbles on frozen legs, and Kitty scowls so fiercely it's a miracle something doesn't spontaneously combust.

"You are so _stupid_." She snarls, helping Lavinia keep her balance with a stabilising hand on the shoulder, Beanie pulling Lavinia forward. "Why on earth didn't you just _ask_ for help, instead of giving yourself **hypothermia?** "

"I didn' mean t' get trapped in your shed." Lavinia grumbles, avoiding the question. Her voice is noticeably slurred.

Beanie looks back at her beseechingly, and Lavinia's resolve almost immediately crumbles. "Alrigh', don' look a' me like tha'. I didn' wanna bother you."

Kitty throws her free hand in a wide, frustrated, arc. "You almost _dying_ in my shed is preferable to "bothering" me, how?"

Lavinia avoids her eyes, ducking her head in something akin to shame, feeling her cheeks heat up (at least, as much as was possible with hypothermia).

Beanie slows momentarily to free a hand to pat Lavinia consolingly. It then returns to grasping her coat to drag her towards the house.

"I dunno- it jus' _was,_ alright?" Lavinia mumbles.

"No! This is very much not alright! You are literally so cold _I can feel it through my gloves!_ " Kitty cries, somewhere between frustrated and concerned. "You're always free to come into my house, like all of my friends, which I would vastly prefer over THIS!"

"Why were you in Kitty's shed, actually?" Beanie askes, eyes wide and worried when she turns to glance over her shoulder. "I knew it must be you in there, because Binny mistakenly got your doll, which was meant for me, but I don't know why." Beanie explains, sounding faintly proud of her deductions. It's kind of cute.

"Didn' wanna go back t' my dad an' his stupid new wife." Lavinia mumbles, dragging her feet through the snow.

Kitty and Beanie share a look which Lavinia can't identify (it sends a pang of what Lavinia hesitantly identifies as envy through her, to see them use silent communication like that). Before she can ask about it, they're at the backdoor, which Beanie opens with ease of practice, despite having no free hands. Lavinia is vaguely impressed she can open the door with her foot like like that, especially considering her usual lack of coordination.

They stumble through into the hallway, Kitty swiftly discarding her jacket, gloves, and shoes while Beanie fumbles with hers, and it takes Lavinia a long moment to remember that she needs to at least get her boots off. 

Unfortunately, with her stiff and awkward fingers, it takes her the time Beanie uses to completely get out of her winter gear to remove one boot. Kitty sighs and helps her with the other. Her face is twisted in a scowl, and Lavinia's not sure if it's because she's angry about having to help Lavinia or she's angry that Lavinia is cold enough that she needs the help.

Lavinia is so tired she could go to sleep right there, sat in the hallway, but Beanie pokes her until she stands, a frown on her face. Her jacket is stolen from her at that point, and Kitty holds it away from her with a horrified look on her face. "We're burning this." She says, decisively, before flinging it into the far corner with great haste. Lavinia wants to protest, even if the coat is rancid, but she's too tired for that.

Kitty pushes her and Beanie drags her and quite suddenly, she finds them in the living room, Kitty sitting her down on the floor while Beanie drags a huge blanket over.

"My parents would kill me if I let you dirty the couch, no offense." Kitty says by way of explanation. "Also, when you warm up a bit, you're having a bath. You stink."

Lavinia grunts. At another time, she might be offended, but she has just spent the last three days living in a shed. Kitty is unfortunately correct. And anyways, she's too warm to care. 

Because the house is _warm._ Not massively so, but a lot more than the shed had been. And Kitty and Beanie look so _concerned_ that Lavinia kind of feels guilty for not just coming to them in the first place.

That reminds her- "How'd you work ou' I was in the shed?"

"Oh, it was the only place it made sense for you to be, because you couldn't be in the house and you had to be close by." Beanie says, fiddling with her plait and hovering near Lavinia in a distinctly nervous fashion. "We knew someone was in there, really, and it was just a matter of figuring out who."

"Why on earth did you walk back in your own footsteps to leave your doll on the doorstep instead of _knocking?_ " Kitty asks, eyes sharp.

"'Cause 't seemed like somet'ing Hazel 'r Daisy would do? 'Nd I chicken'd out, I guess." Lavinia says. Honestly, she's not quite sure herself anymore. Kitty sighs, and Lavinia briefly wonders if this must be what Daisy feels like when Hazel scolds her for being reckless. She quickly discards the thought though, because Daisy has never felt guilty a day in her life.

"Stay here. Actually, Beanie, keep an eye on her. I'm going to get mum." Kitty says, pinching the bridge of her nose like an overwrought school teacher. She climbs the stairs two at a time, leaving Lavinia sitting awkwardly with Beanie.

After a moment of silence, Beanie speaks. "Please never do this again." She says, absent-mindedly pulling on her plait. "I hate seeing my friends hurt." There's something oddly serious in her voice, a far cry from the Beanie of third-year who struggled to grasp concepts like Verity's "suicide". 

Lavinia nods, tired but beginning to warm up properly, with feeling returning to her fingers after probably far too long in an uncomfortable burning sensation. "'m s'rry." She mumbles, recalling her own nightmares about Enid and slowly realising, like a monkey doing a jigsaw puzzle, that Beanie is going to have nightmares about _this_ for a while.

Lavinia lets her head droop slightly, and then suddenly Kitty is in front of her with mother and maid in tow. "Come on, you're taking a bath and getting changed." She says, tugging on her arm. Beanie pulls too, and in no time at all she is being shepherded into the bathroom upstairs with a fresh change of clothes and a stern warning not to fall asleep in the bath.

It feels nice, to be taken care of like this, especially after living in a shed for the better part of a week.

When she stumbles back downstairs, clean and dry and no longer smelling of dying things, the cook gives her some food and Lavinia does the closest thing to apologising for stealing that she can manage, which is to complement the food. The cook softens a little, so Lavinia supposes she must have at least gotten that right.

Then Mrs Freebody says, "Well, dear, I suppose we need to call your parents now. They must be worried sick!"

Despite herself, Lavinia can't help but snort. Her dad is _way_ too involved with his new wife to give a damn about her right now, she's sure. And, obviously, her mother wouldn't even know she's gone. She never checks in, anyways.

"I suppose." Lavinia mumbles, still too tired to really think her words through, "Doubt they've really noticed yet, though."

Mrs Freebody frowns, but doesn't push it, only prying the phone number out of Lavinia before sending her up to Kitty's room with an affectionate pat on the shoulder.

⁂

"Lavinia!" Beanie cries, hurling herself into Lavinia with enough force it nearly knocks her over, "you're alright! **and** you no longer smell like death!" Kitty nods sagely from her bed. "A vast improvement." She says, grinning softly. Lavinia cracks a smile.

"Sorry for worrying you." she mumbles, patting Beanie's back in the same fashion one might pet a dog, "I didn't think it through."

"That's for sure." Kitty says, eyebrow raised almost like Daisy's when she practices her denouement, "I thought doing stupid stuff like that was reserved for Daisy."

Lavinia grumbles wordlessly, flushing slightly. Beanie shakes her head though, plaits whipping about like deadly weapons, "Kitty, I think you're underestimating how much, um, stupid stuff Hazel does."

Kitty considers, and amends, "I though stupid stuff like that was reserved for our friends not currently in the room."

"To be fair to me," Lavinia points out, still embarrassed, "Beanie did jump in front of a murderer literally last term." Her arm involuntarily tightens around the girl clinging to her.

"Good point." Kitty mutters over Beanie's playfully offended, "Hey!". Something like horror crosses her face. "Oh god, am _I_ the voice of reason?"

Lavinia and Beanie stay quiet.

"Oh no, I _am_." Kitty dispares dramatically. "Why is the bar for that so low. How am I the voice of reason. Lavinia, this is your fault for deciding nearly getting yourself killed was a reasonable response to your dad getting remarried. We could share our common sense before, but now it's clear you don't have any."

"Hey, no need to rub it in." Lavinia mutters, scowling.

"I was just ribbing." Kitty says softly, "I'm going to chew you out again later."

Lavinia huffs and says sarcastically, "Something to look forward too, oh boy." There's no heat in her words though, and she shuffles over to Kitty's bed, Beanie hanging off her like a limpet. It hurtles over the astronomically low bar that is being of better quality than the dorm beds, and Lavinia lets herself topple onto Kitty. Kitty squawks, but makes no further objection. Beanie, still by far the smallest (much to her consternation) wriggles into a comfortable looking ball between the bed and the wall.

"Goodnight." Lavinia mutters.

"Lavinia it's the middle of the day— and she's asleep."

Beanie snorts, unfurling an arm to pat Kitty's affectionately. "Let her sleep."

"She's sleeping _on me_."

Beanie shrugs. Kitty mouths _betrayal_ and resigns herself to four hours of being slept on. Lavinia sleeps on, safe and warm.


End file.
